I am a huge John Updike ('Witches of Eastwick') fan, and two of his more recent novels would make for really compelling movies, imo.

'Brazil', which is kind of a fucked up Romeo and Juliet style romance, would be a fantastic movie. The story deals with a reach girl and a poor hustler who fall in love and it charts their relationship from the streets of Rio to the deepest jungles of the Amazon. The story seems to take place over the course of about 30 years or so, but its hard to tell. Anyway there is a wonderful and trippy twist toward the end of the book that was SO beautifully done. The book manages to illuminate issues with race, class and also gives a really informative look at the country of Brazil.

Another of his works that would have me creaming my britches as a movie is 'Toward the End of Time'. This science fiction story takes place in New England after some vaguely defined world shattering event. Life is still relatively normal, but there are frightening changes afoot. Anarchy seems to be just at the edge of every neighborhood. The story follows an older man who might be losing his mind. The world Updike creates reminds me a little of that old nuclear fear vehicle 'Testament', but there is a little more of the fantastic thrown in. The book is filled with such haunting images, my favorite being this orbiting space station that is visible from the Earth filled with dead bodies of astronaughts that died because the world was in such catastrophe no one could go and rescue them. I would love to see how a filmmaker like Spike Jonze or Gondry could take some of the trippy premises of this book and blow people's brains out in a theater.

Toward the End of Time sounds fantastic the way you've set it up, the themes sounds similar to my screenplay idea. I'm working on geting a private Forum/Board set up with Doc. PM me if you are interested.

The Dino, he like a to see a the good Tarzan movie... one that's a true to a the first book... we get a to see the Tarzan grow uppa with a the monkeys, fight a the gorilla anna gets a the scar on his a forehead, alla that stuff. Great stuff! No cartoons anna no Phil Collins... even though I do like a the opening number inna the Disney film, anna the fight scene with a the cheetah is a good stuff. Greystoke, she was a close, but it fall apart outta the jungle.

Both Pi and Carter need actors willing to work with Big Cats (Tiger and Lion) I wonder if this means they are going to have trouble casting? Pi must be an absolute nightmare to adapt, I imagine it will be a whole new entity when it finally hits the screens. At least Shamalamadingdong is no longer attached. He has to move away from the twist endings although he certainlty is talented.

With the huge BO and popular appeal of L.O.T.R I've been surprised that I haven't heard any more projects based upon the works of Tolkien (except, of course, the Hobbit). But if anyone is familiar with this work...oh your god!

It's in "the Silmarillion" that Tolkien sets up the foundations, the building blocks of the world he created. We get the creation, the origins of Elves, Dwarves, Man, the origins of Sauron and his even more powerful predecessor. And it contains the story (sang in L.O.T.R as "the lay of Beren and Luthien) of the first time a mortal and and Elf fell in love, the Story of Beren and Luthien.

Not only is it a wonderful story that Tolkien has called "the kernel of the mythology" but it is an amazing stand alone short story. Highly recommended to anyone who wants more Middle-Earth history.

And the best thing is...WE could do this. Could use it as a Beta test for our potential screenplay. If you haven't read it and loved L.O.T.R....read it now. If you have, tell me that this wouldn't be a fucking brilliant fantasy film.

Personally, I'm an atheist in the voting booth and a theist in the movie theatre. I separate the morality of religion with the spirituality and solace of it. There is something boring about atheism.

Tarantino might have fun with Catch 22, what with the non-linear narrative. Alan Arkin could play Cathcart or General Dreedle this time. I'd like to Arkin and John Voight reprise their roles in Closing Time, the semi-sequel to Catch-22.

TonyWilson wrote:Flicker would be a brilliant film if it was done right, but theres an integral plot point that would be vwery difficult to realise on screen.I'd love to see what aronofsky does with it.

From prose, I'd like to see a film of Vonnegut's "Bluebeard." It's probably the most mainstream novel he's written and the plot is streamlined compared to most of his work. I wonder who could play Rabo Karabekian? Perhaps Brian Cox!

I'd love to see a movie of "The Books of Magic" just so Warner could issue a press release saying Neil Gaiman created Tim Hunter in 1989 and he had his own comic starting in 1993. Bite me, J.K. Rowling.

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky

ZombieZoneSolutions wrote:Keep The Aspidistra Flying by Orwell (written before 1984 and Animal Farm)

Fucking great book - and you could film it for about 10 bucks

totally. i think it could potentially be a big deal. like a big deal indie hit kinda thang. not that it needs to be that, but i think it has a real resonance. especially for us (well me anyway) aging gen-xers.

Orwell was writing about snarky over-educated slackers before even the beat writers were!

I always wanted Gary Paulsen's Hatchet series to be made into movies. Start with Hatchet, and tweak the ending a little. By the end, have Brian realize it's winter, and end it there. Next would be Brian's Winter, and maybe they could skip The River and go right into Brian's Return.

Well, with all the new sci-fi news around lately, it reminded me of a series of books that I really loved, and that I think would really be something special on screen... The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.

There is a bunch of fantastic characters in that thing, and it by no means peaks at the first book, if anything the story continues to escalate and become richer as it progresses.

As much as I would prefer them to be in movie form, what with the recent success of the new Battlestar Galactic relaunch, it made me think that could actualy really work as a TV project too. To really humanize the characters, and have all those suprises and plot twists and turns given real justice, TV might even be a better medium to serve it to it's full potential....

I really just put this down as I just thought of it, so does anyone know if thing is in the works anywhere? It's one of the great works, so someone must have the rights surely?...